The young fellow John spoke up, to the effect that this was a diabolish snobby question, when a man was dying and not dead.--To this the Koh-i-noor replied, by asking if the other meant to insult him.--Whereto the young man John rejoined that he had no particul'r intentions one way or t'other.--The Koh-i-noor then suggested the young man's stepping out into the yard, that he, the speaker, might "slap his chops,"--Let 'em alone,--said young Maryland,--it'll soon be over, and they won't hurt each other much.--So they went out. The Koh-i-noor entertained the very common idea, that, when one quarrels with another, the simple thing to do is to _knock the man down_, and there is the end of it. Now those who have watched such encounters are aware of two things: first, that it is not so easy to knock a man down as it is to talk about it; secondly, that, if you do happen to knock a man down, there is a very good chance that he will be angry, and get up and give you a thrashing. So the Koh-i-noor thought he would begin, as soon as they got into the yard, by knocking his man down, and with this intention swung his arm round after the fashion of rustics and those unskilled in the noble art, expecting the young fellow John to drop when his fist, having completed a quarter of a circle, should come in contact with the side of that young man's head. Unfortunately for this theory, it happens that a blow struck out straight is as much shorter, and therefore as much quicker than the rustic's swinging blow, as the radius is shorter than the quarter of a circle. The mathematical and mechanical corollary was, that the Koh-i-noor felt something hard bring up suddenly against his right eye, which something he could have sworn was a paving-stone, judging by his sensations; and as this threw his person somewhat backwards, and the young man, John jerked his own head back a little, the swinging blow had nothing to stop it; and as the Jewel staggered between the hit he got and the blow he missed, he tripped and "went to grass," so far as the back-yard of our boarding-house was provided with that vegetable. It was a signal illustration of that fatal mistake, so frequent in young and ardent natures with inconspicuous calves and negative pectorals, that they can settle most little quarrels on the spot by "knocking the man down."